1969 Dodge Coronet 500

[crahill39]

Thats an awesome car you picked to work on, love the look of them.
By the way, buying your tools and organizing your garage was probably the best thing to start with. Its ALWAYS a pain in the a** to do it after the car is in there and half torn apart!
No need to say "have fun with it" because you already are.... lol. Glad to see.
Out of curiosity, what do you have planned for the final outcome of the car?

Thanks for looking at the thread. I haven't completely figured out what I am going for in the end. I think right now I am just concentrating on getting the rust out and working forward on the car. The car has the original 383 in it now and it runs well, but I would like it to have a little more kick and I thought making a stroker out of it. Still a long ways away before I dig into that area.

Craig

 

[goose69]

So many people underrate the 383's but we've built some really killer ones! They even make a good stroker motor too. Love the RPM range they run in.

 

[Ron 73]

Tail Panel is out and new parts have arrived. I am starting to get the hang of the spot weld cutter and learning more everytime I work on the car. Unfortunately, I have to limit how and when I work on the car because of a few upity neighbors who act like the HoA police enforcers . Anyways, here are a few pics.

Craig

Craig, Thats going to be a nice car, tell them neighbors to Stick it, Its your car and your garage and your business what you do in it.. Im sorry but ive ran into jerk people like that, some that wouldn't surprise me if they got up in the AM and yelled at the birds to shut up. I wish you luck on this, I know we all would like to get along with the neighbors, but, its your home and you should be able to do what you want within law.. I don't think cutting metal and welding is illegal.

 

[crahill39]

Craig, Thats going to be a nice car, tell them neighbors to Stick it, Its your car and your garage and your business what you do in it.. Im sorry but ive ran into jerk people like that, some that wouldn't surprise me if they got up in the AM and yelled at the birds to shut up. I wish you luck on this, I know we all would like to get along with the neighbors, but, its your home and you should be able to do what you want within law.. I don't think cutting metal and welding is illegal.

I agree with you 100%. He was an old guy and it kind of caught me off guard. I think the rub with me was this guy didnt have the courtesy to introduce himself while on my property before telling me how disturbing my work was. But f'em....I do my best to be courteous about when I work and for how long because we all have to live together. He's gonna really love me when I run that motor with open headers some day first thing in the a.m. :headbang:

Craig

 

[goose69]

I agree with you 100%. He was an old guy and it kind of caught me off guard. I think the rub with me was this guy didnt have the courtesy to introduce himself while on my property before telling me how disturbing my work was. But f'em....I do my best to be courteous about when I work and for how long because we all have to live together. He's gonna really love me when I run that motor with open headers some day first thing in the a.m. :headbang:

Craig

Oh yes, the praverbial open headered big block initial fire up witching hour. Had many of those!
By the way, how come we can never get those things ready for fire up in the middle of the day?? Wierd.:thinker:

 

[Ron 73]

I like doing whats right with the neighbor thing but some just go to far, my wife always told me i went overboard with it, but like you said, we all have to live around each other.. Wish i were a neighbor when you start that BB up myself, You have my word i wouldn't say word one about open headers.. Maybe when you start it he will give you a thumbs up! Yea, i know. wrong finger flying up lol... You could warn him that once the engines in, your going to need to start it to make sure all is ok with oil pressure, water ect... might help if he knows you had enough consideration to at least warn him, i did say "might"..

 

[roadrunnerman]

i,m not sure about where you live but where i do we can make as much noise between 7am and 10 pm as we want.We have one neighbor i would love to see move.

 

[detmatt1]

Nice project, keep up the good work.

 

[crahill39]

Got a little work in today because I am oncall for work and that means I am stuck to the house for a week. Started working on the LH inner wheel well rust. I know some of you guys can fab this stuff up no problem, but this was my first stab at it. So I cheated and bought the inner wheel wells from Jeff at 521 so I could cut my patches out of them. I still need to tighten up the gaps a bit and then get to welding it in.

Craig

 

['69Net]

nice.......keep up the good work...and pic's

 

[Propwash]

Looks good Craig. Your car and skills are coming along great. Keep up the good work man.

 

[roadrunnerman]

looking good.You're off to a good start.

 

[Basket case]

gret job! and I love my 383, and I was used to riding behind a 440 for 20 years.
you need to move to my neighborhood. we have guys building Derby cars, driving them around the neighborhood. ATVs flying down the road, mud trucks, etc.

 

[cnet500]

Sweet project! I've just got the 383 in my 69 Coronet 500 done and running. Body work will be next for me. Please keep posting pic's so I can ( hopefully ) learn.

 

[crahill39]

Well, this weekend I did a little more work on car, and learned some very valuable lessons.

1. I need to learn how to adjust my welder better (Lincoln 140). I initially had it running too hot and had blow through.....which I had to patch. I was using .030 wire, but I think I will swap out to .025. Some of my welds just looked horrible and some looked pretty good. I need to get better at this.

2. I need a better cuttoff tool....I bought a Home Depot one and it just plain sucks.

3. Grinding welds - I now see what people mean about heating up the metal and it warping on you. I was using a stone grinding disk and hitting it too hard. The only saving grace is that this particular area will be covered up pretty good with a bed liner type coating.

4. Biggest Lesson - I have a crap ton to learn about metal and body work

Craig

 

[kb67mopar]

Well, this weekend I did a little more work on car, and learned some very valuable lessons.

1. I need to learn how to adjust my welder better (Lincoln 140). I initially had it running too hot and had blow through.....which I had to patch. I was using .030 wire, but I think I will swap out to .025. Some of my welds just looked horrible and some looked pretty good. I need to get better at this.

2. I need a better cuttoff tool....I bought a Home Depot one and it just plain sucks.

3. Grinding welds - I now see what people mean about heating up the metal and it warping on you. I was using a stone grinding disk and hitting it too hard. The only saving grace is that this particular area will be covered up pretty good with a bed liner type coating.

4. Biggest Lesson - I have a crap ton to learn about metal and body work

Craig

1. For burn through turn the heat down a little and the wire speed up a bit.

2. your cut off tool is probably ok, they take quite a bit of use to break in before they really start working well. took me quite a few hours of swearing at it before it got useful. (assuming air cut off)

3. Use flap disks for grinding down welds, I really wont touch a stone wheel. www.heleta.com

4. Keep trying, we all suck at first

 

[RustyRatRod]

Way to jump in. This is a cool project.

 

[Propwash]

.030 wire will work fine for that Craig. It's a bit more tricky to dial in with 20GA auto sheetmetal, but has its own benifits vs. .025. All I use on Auto sheetmetal is .030.

Its all about what you're comfortable with. As your skills and experience grows you'll figure out a wire Dia. that matches your welding style. Where you have to find a fine line in between the two wire's is; .025 will run lower amps (heat) and faster wire speed to spread an arc. The .030 is higher amps, slower wire speed to do the same.

Benifit's? Well, I'm sure there's much out for debate, but myself I find it quicker to lay in .030 and make the weld flow in more fluently, especially with plug welding. Downside of .030, the wire speed/amps as well as your nozzle travel need to be fine tuned or you'll end up like in your case burn through or even warping. Being new to welding, it's gonna be a bit more forgiving for you to run the .025 off the bat.

As far as cut-off wheels/die grinders, they suck up CFM quicker than people realize. You do have a nice Quincy compressor, but i'm guessing your issue is with not much pressure you can stop the wheel from spinning or it get stuck/stops fairly often. 1st off, a decent cutoff tool or die grinder like a Ingersoll Rand or Chicago Pneumatic may help with that. Or, try a pneumatic air saw. Very small cut line, uses less CFM over extended periods of use vs. a cut off wheel/die grinder. Doesn't work too well with loose hanging metal though. Other options, air shears, air nibber, reciprocating saw...ect...ect.. The best thing I have ever purchased for cutting metal, hands down is my Hypertherm Plasma cutter. Like butter! Makes life 10 times easier.

As far as grinding down the weld caps...lot of options there. Edge of 3" cut off disc on your die grinder, 1/16" thick (1/32" for making cuts in auto sheetmetal), 2" Roloc discs 35-60 grit, or if warping is not a concern in the work area, Tiger flapper wheel on a grinder. Stone...well.......pretty slow, but it works..........eventually.

You're gonna learn a lot as you go, but takes time. There's gonna be wasted time/money on tools and equipment that really wasn't needed or don't really work, long days and plenty of headaches to go with them. Just stick with it, put in the time/work and you'll be opening a new door in life, building your skills and will come out of it with an awesome car and the confidence/know how to take on more or bigger projects down the road.

 

[99ss]

Nice work, you're going right at it !
I was and still am there. Welcome aboard the restoration roller coaster
When you get down just come on in and post up and the guys will pick you up in here. It takes a toll on you or at least it does did me and you need support from time to time .. Ron, Prop, twpdg and whole host of others have helped me when I needed it most

 

[Propwash]

Great to see you still rolling on your Plymouth 99ss..

Lotta great guys here always willing to help. Best dang Mopar site on the internet!